Investigating a Coconut

L asked what was inside a coconut. So we decided to buy one and see for ourselves.

Draining the milk.

Both kids held the coconut and touched its rough skin prior to us attempting to open it. Then Big L took a screwdriver to one of the coconut’s eyes, and pierced a hole into the centre. He drained some of the coconut’s milk out through this hole. L was surprised that this milk wasn’t white like cow’s milk, but she didn’t want to try drinking it.

A helped Big L put the milk through a fine sieve to remove the debris from the shell.

Sieving the milk.

Big L upgraded to a bottle opener to make the hole bigger so that the milk would drain more quickly, and he let each of the kids use a corkscrew in the hole too.

Using a corkscrew to open a hole in the coconut.

Once all the milk was drained, Big L used the dull side of a large knife to tap the coconut’s shell until it weakened, and he was able to cut the coconut open. The kids were fascinated by the white flesh inside the hairy brown shell. We explained to A that this was where the white stuff on the outside of lamingtons comes from (lamingtons being one of her favourite foods at the moment).

Opened coconut.

Unfortunately the coconut had a crack in the shell when we bought it (I can thank online grocery shopping for that) and some mould had grown in the crack, infiltrating the flesh, making the coconut unsuitable for eating. We did have fun opening it and seeing what was inside though, and I think we will probably get another one sometime so that we can try the fresh milk and flesh too.